ISLAMABAD, July 22: A 14-member bench of the Supreme Court on Monday set aside the judgment passed by their two colleagues last week convicting the Sindh High Court registrar of a contempt of court charge.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, listened to the counsel for the appellant, Iqbal Qazi, and Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan before accepting the appeal of SHC Registrar Sadiq Leghari.

The two-judge bench, comprising Justice Deedar Hussain Shah and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza, had convicted the registrar when he failed to respond to the SC query about some impugned judgment. At present, both judges sit in the Karachi registry. The registrar was asked to inform the apex court whether the impugned judgment was passed by a single-judge bench or a two-member bench.

One petitioner had informed the court that his case was only heard by a single judge of the Sindh High Court and it was wrongly stated on the judgment that it was the decision of a two-judge bench.

The SC wrote a letter to the SHC registrar. The registrar did not reply. The apex court then sent a reminder but that, too, was not responded.

The SC then started the contempt of court proceedings and awarded simple imprisonment to the registrar till the rising of the court.

The registrar filed an appeal in the Supreme Court and obtained an automatic stay order as under the amended contempt law, the mere filing of an application meant an automatic suspension of the operation of the judgment.

The contempt law was amended by the former PML government in anticipation that the Supreme Court bench, headed by the then chief justice Sajjad Ali Shah, might convict the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The law also provided that the filing of an appeal would mean an automatic stay of the judgment and the whole court, barring the bench members who passed the judgment, would hear the appeal.

The counsel for the appellant informed the bench that his client had tendered unqualified apology and that he could not even think of committing the offence. The counsel stated that the delay in submitting a reply by the registrar was not deliberate.

The CJ observed that the registrar was an high official of the court and it could not be expected that he would commit contempt of court.

Justice Munir A. Sheikh observed that there was no evidence that the delay favoured any party.

AG Makhdoom Ali Khan stated that there was no time limit prescribed by the apex court for the compliance of its order, and the matter did not fall in the scope the contempt of court law.

The Supreme Court bench consisted of Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Munir A. Sheikh, Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq, Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Tanvir Ahmad Khan, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, and Justice Faqir Mohammad Khokhar.